More TC Electronic X2? Please?

Update: See Tore Mogensen’s reply at the very bottom.

Let’s kick this off with the fact that I love TC Electronic’s products! Especially those from the guitar department. Tore Mogensen is the Product Manager for guitar and I always look forward to his announcements of new products. The fact that TC Electronic is a Danish company may help my enthusiasm too. Although I currently live in Canada I still really enjoy it when European guitar gear builders do so well.

TonePrint Series

In 2010 TC Electronic introduced TonePrint Enabled pedals. These pedals were built in the same chassis as the PolyTune tuner pedal that I used at the time. I fell for the high quality tones of the Hall Of Fame Reverb and the possibility to load “TonePrints“. The first TonePrints were designed by TC and professional (and well known) guitarists, but after many requests by the guitar community they even made the TonePrint Editor available for free. An excellent move that shows that TC Electronic really listens to their customers.

Mini Series and the Ditto X2

At NAMM 2012 TC Electronic introduces the PolyTune Mini which is simply a tiny version of their regular sized tuner. In 2013 they introduce the Ditto Looper that comes in the same tiny case. In 2014 they added more mini versions of their regular TonePrint effects and also released the Ditto X2 Looper, a follow up of the original Ditto looper. The interesting thing about the Ditto X2 is that its built in a new case: about twice as wide as a regular TonePrint pedal and it got a second footswitch.

Audio Tapping

The (regular sized) delay pedals of the TonePrint series feature the “Audio Tapping” technology that gives you the option to set the tempo of the repeats by strumming your strings when holding down the footswitch. I think it’s a great idea and awesome technology but I also think it shouldn’t be a replacement for a tap tempo footswitch or input for an external tap pedal. When playing live and in the middle of a song it’s hard to find the best moment to:

Stop Playing

Hold down Footswitch

Strum Tempo

It requires quite some skills to do this halfway a song without attracting the attention of your band members or your listeners. It may work well when playing with a click track or super tight playing drummer though. Unfortunately I’ve played in too many situations without either so I need to be able to control the delay time on the fly and with my foot. Without having to stop playing my part.

We’d like more TC Electronic X2! Please?

When finding out about the Ditto X2 I realized that this chassis offers cool options for many (if not all) of the TonePrint pedals. I even found a topic on the Gear Page with some cool ideas. Even Tore is one of the members that commented. I thought it would be fun to make these ideas more visual and created a couple of mockups which you can see below. I really hope TC Electronic will consider making versions like these available at some point. My only reason for not buying the Alter Ego V2 is that it doesn’t have a dedicated tap tempo pedal or an input for an external one.

I’m aware of the fact that there’s an X4 version of the Flashback and Alter Ego available, with a dedicated tap tempo footswitch. But those units are just too big for my pedalboard.

Let’s end this post how I began: I’m a big fan of TC Electronic’s products and want to thank them for being so open to suggestions and actually listening to their clients. Thanks!